Breakdown of Onko viisaus parempaa kuin kauneus?
olla
to be
kuin
than / like / as (also in "before …")
parempi
better
viisaus
the wisdom
Questions & Answers about Onko viisaus parempaa kuin kauneus?
How is viisaus formed from the adjective viisas?
To make an abstract noun from viisas (wise), we take its inflectional stem viisaa-. When we add the suffix -us, the last vowel of the stem is dropped to avoid having three vowels in a row. So, viisaa- + -us becomes viisaus (wisdom).
The word for beautiful is kaunis. Why does the noun form kauneus have an 'e' in it?
Adjectives ending in -is (like kaunis or kallis) have stems ending in -ii- (kaunii-, kallii-). When deriving abstract nouns from these, the i changes to an e before adding the -us suffix. This is why kaunis becomes kauneus (beauty) and kallis (expensive) becomes kalleus.
The lesson is about the suffix -uus/-yys, but here we see -us. Are these the same suffix?
Yes! The base suffix is -uus/-yys, which you see in words like tyhmyys (from tyhmä). However, if the word's stem already ends in two vowels (like viisaa-), Finnish uses the shorter version -us/-ys so you don't end up with an awkward string of three or four vowels.
Why is the adjective parempi (better) in the partitive case (parempaa) here?